It’s something I say often. Or position as a question. In theory, it’s simple; however, once unpacked, it urges honesty and evokes insight.

When you schedule a function—a meeting, date, lunch appointment, or a doctor visit—you typically have a set of goals, or an outcome, in mind. Training at our gym should be no different. But here’s the thing: You have to understand that you can, and should, come in here with a different set of goals from time to time.

Training at a CrossFit affiliate can have you feeling like you’re supposed to “go hard” each time you come in. Some even think that to make “progress” you need to push yourself to the absolute edge of exhaustion. Others have the harebrained notion that if you’re not laying on the ground gasping for air, then you haven’t done something worth doing.

That being said, all of these ideas could not be more inaccurate. Listen, there is nothing wrong with throwing on your crazy pants and pushing the limits on what you can handle, but it’s not the end all be all. It’s also impossible to sustain.

“Get what you came for” can be understood in some cases as a checkmark for what you need to accomplish. Some days your only goal is to make it to the gym—and that in itself marks the day as a huge success. Other days, your goal might be to partner with a new athlete in the class. Or to get to the front on the room, instead of your usual back. Maybe you have a performance goal. Or a new class goal: to come to Life Lifting, Mobility, Weightlifting, or any other class that you have been too nervous to try. There are a lot of ways to gauge performance and progress, just like there are a lot of ways to approach a day at the gym. To get what you came for, maybe start by unpacking what you need.

As you head to the gym today, think simply about your goals. Because as we know, excess doesn’t always result in success. More often than not, your goals are achievable and aligned with your inherent needs; how we approach them is what puts change in motion.